Israeli combat veteran raises alarm over increasing suicide of soldiers since October 7
An Israeli combat veteran has urged the government to quickly address concerns of soldiers returning from the war in Gaza, amid reports of increasing suicide rates.
In an interview with the Israeli public broadcaster, Kan, Tzachi Atedagi, an advocate for the protection of the mental health of soldiers, noted that 10 soldiers recently took their own lives in a span of less than two weeks.
“We are crying out. Enough is enough,” Atedagi told Kan Network B’s This Morning programme. “There are a lot of combat veterans roaming the streets, but it is very difficult for us [to get help] with all the bureaucracy around,” he said.
“Sometimes, a combat veteran doesn’t have 24 hours to wait,” he added, citing several reports of soldiers who killed themselves while waiting for health intervention from the government.
Earlier this week, The Times of Israel reported that a soldier was seriously wounded in an apparent attempted suicide while in training in southern Israel.
In January 2025, the Israeli army reported that 28 soldiers had taken their own lives since the start of the war, marking the highest toll in 13 years.
Since then, several more cases of suicide by soldiers have been reported, although an official tally will not be released by the Israeli military until the end of the year.
Israeli physicians’ group say GHF ‘must be removed’ from Gaza
Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said the continued presence of the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) “endangers Palestinian lives”.
Castigating the GHF’s methods after at least 19 people were crushed to death at one of its food distribution sites on Wednesday in the south of Gaza, the Israeli physicians’ group said “this is not what humanitarian aid looks like.
“This is what systematic harm to human beings looks like,” it said.
GHF “must be removed from the Strip immediately and replaced with systematic, independent international aid”, it added.
“Only neutral and internationally recognised humanitarian organisations can put an end to the bloodshed in Gaza.”
Members of a private US security company, contracted by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private US-backed aid group which the UN refuses to work with, direct displaced Palestinians as they gather to receive relief supplies at a distribution centre in the central Gaza Strip on June 8
